The wielders of the "I thought we were BETTER than THEM!1" meme

[UTUSN]

The immediate impetus for this topic is the current flurry of posts scolding us lowly humans for supposedly dancing on G.E.RUSSERT's grave. For starters, it's not his death we have talked about, it was the several personal flaws (to put it mildly) that he exhibited WHILE HE WAS LIVING. The hurt he did to us and to others. Why is dying supposed to wipe the slate clean? Actually, it never does. It wipes it clean for *some* but not for *others.* Who gets to decide who is on which list?


Guess what, human nature INCLUDES the whole spectrum from selflessness through the depravity of Pol Pot. There are no "extra good" and "extra bad" people unto themselves. Everybody carries the whole deal inside.

Those who claim to be "BETTER-THAN" are, by definition, putting themselves OVER large portions of the population. They are elitists. The label "Democratic" is not good enough for them. Usually they claim another, more exclusive label. And their protestations that "I will vote Dem-------BUT:" always carries the implication that they are champing at the bit to go vote for just about anybody in a third party, if ONLY there WERE somebody out there besides a Dem.


I notice that they soon forget that they are BETTER-THAN and turn around and engage in the most vicious of flaming against us lowly humans. Of course, it's for a higher purpose, for the holiest of their thou, for the snootiest of their snoot.

[Winterblues]

1. So you don't fit the bill I guess.

It is a simple matter of Respect. Either you have it or you don't. It has nothing to do with holier than thou. How would you say you fit the bill?

[UTUSN]

3. Ah, a predictably personally attacking post the answer to which is in the o.p.

If there can *be* an answer, since (insert "Pancake Bunny" here). But whatever "bill" you're referring to, I won't refer you to the next-to-last sentence in the o.p. since it didn't catch your attention the first time.

[sakura]

2. Excellent post. Well said.

It's dangerous to consider oneself-- or one's group-- as intrinsically better than another. Perhaps what such posters mean is that we're supposed to try to rise above our baser instincts. But you are absolutely correct-- the fact that we may try doesn't mean we will succeed.

As for Tim Russert, right now our media is going through an extended bout of navel gazing. I really don't think their comments are about him so much as they are about themselves. But that's not surprising. For at least the past twenty years, events have been filtered more and more through the eyes of those presenting the story, and they eyes of those paying for it. The victors have always been the ones to write history, but the media does this one better-- they get to decide what will be considered for the history books.

It's not just an "inside the beltway" viewpoint for these guys. It's a penthouse suite, private car, reserved seats at the finest restaurants and hobnobbing with celebrities viewpoint. They lack the objectivity and varied points of view (not just politically, but demographically) to give an accurate portrayal of the world around them.

It makes me sick to watch and listen to them, so I've stopped. I'm tired of hearing what people in their very narrow slice of society are doing, I'm tired of hearing who is friends with or married to whom (Alan Greenspan? WTF?), and I'm tired of getting their take on the classes below them (David Brooks comes to mind here).

We are lucky to have the internet. For the moment, anyway, it's free speech, and anyone with access to a computer and a little patience can participate.

[TexasObserver]

4. It's all about the emotions of those who take offense.

None of this is about Russert or his family, who are not here. This tempest in a teapot is only about the deeply embedded emotional responses of those who think when a person dies, all discussion of their flaws should end for a period of time.

They aren't mad because they care about Russert. They're mad because they don't want YOU or others to violate THEIR personal biases regarding death rituals.

This is about the freedom of thinking individuals (like you and me) to discuss Russert's life's work NOW. They don't want us to. We think they're silly for being that way.

They're mad about this, and they'll be mad the next time it happens. WHO it happens to is almost irrelevant. This is about how people try to impose their notions of death ritual upon others who do not share their superstitutions and beliefs.

[Sundoggy]

5. Nice strawman

No one is "better than" anone else. But certainly some people ACTED "better than" others. And I have NO problem whatsoever with that judgement.

People who celebrate the deaths of others deserve, ummm, less than a happy life themselves. Period. That's the way things work in a civilized society.

[UTUSN]

7. Uh, yes, the scolders here DO define themselves as better-than and NO, they don't ACT better

I specifically posited in the o.p. that the others of us were NOT "celebrate(ing) the deaths of others." And there you go with that NOT acting better, slapping a judgment() of "less than a happy life" on others. Nobody does the "acting better" job worse than the scolders when they let loose their vicious flaming.

We who refuse to perform idolatry talked about some of what HE DID IN LIFE, not his death.

If there is one thing we all learn the more we live is the thinness of the veneer of "civilized society.


And an empty allegation of "straw man" is a straw man itself, empty of thought.

[Mountainman]

6. My guess about the media and Russert these past few days is that the pundits don't want to face the

reality that many of them deserve blame for the war and the mess we are in by not doing investigative reporting on the Bush administration. By not questioning it's motives. So one of them dies and they all circle the wagons and cry on each other shoulders.

I am not going to dance on Russert's grave but I don't agree with all the praise he has been getting.

He definitely enabled this administration in the early years and that is not dancing on a grave that is just stating facts. It's a shame so many DUers live in denial about that.